Saving Money on Back to School Shopping

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How is it already time to start back to school shopping? Confession: I don’t even need to go back to school shopping but I look forward to it every year. I may have a slight obsession with office products. I’m always on the hunt for the perfect pen and one can never have too many sticky note pads. However, even with the sales, back to school shopping can be quite expensive, especially depending what is on the list you have received from your child’s teacher. Here are some great ideas for saving money on back to school shopping.

Shop your house

You will be surprised how much you still have left from last year or just tucked away somewhere. I’m still trying to figure out why I have so many notebook paper in my house. Pens, notebooks, etc. just seem to accumulate. Does your children really need a new backpack or calculator or do they already have one that works just fine? Before heading to the store, check your house, all of it, to see how much you might already have.

Buy plain

I know, I know, your daughter just has to have that Frozen pencil box and your son the Minion notebook. But really, they don’t. Plain colored one subject notebooks are often around 15 cents. To get the same thing but with a character on it is often more than $1. If you still want to be the cool mom, maybe let your child get one thing that is fancier like their backpack or their assignment binder.

Read sales carefully

Office supply stores often have super, awesome amazing prices! But if you read the fine print, sometimes you have to purchase at least $5 of non-sale items to get that price. Or even just a minimum of $5-10 of all your things. If you really don’t need much, it might be cheaper to shop at some place like Walmart or Kmart. However, if you will be purchasing a lot, the office supply store may be the cheapest option. To be sure to read any fine print.

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Decide what you really need

Things that the teacher has asked for the classroom, you should probably buy. No one wants to be “that family.” But what about the list of things that you child needs? Does your children really need a new package of crayons every year or a whole box of pencils? Only you know what you kid actually uses and what will be a waste. Those big pink erasers? I never liked them. That would be a waste for me. Even with clothes. It can be so tempting to buy a whole new wardrobe for school. Totally not necessary. It can be special to buy a new outfit for the first day and maybe one for picture day but besides that, your child probably doesn’t need a ton of new clothes…just because it is back to school time. Buy clothes and shoes when needed, not because everyone else is doing it. Besides, hopefully you’ve been checking thrift stores, consignment stores, and yard sales and have a stash of clothes in the next couple sizes already. 😉

 

Back to school shopping can be expensive but it doesn’t have to be. Follow these tips to get the most out of your money. Keep the fun memories of first day of school without the financial stress.

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